BigButzBBQ
is Blowin Smoke!
Shopping at the butcher always manages to put me in a good mood. Recently I made a trip to one of the local meat markets and it was supposed to be a glorious trip. Not only was I to purchase meat but, I had a $50.00 gift certificate to spend! How could this not be a good trip? Thoughts of acquiring a double packer of pork buts, a tri-tip, and other goodies danced through my head. I skipped up to the counter with a large giddy smile upon my face and requested the Pork Butts. They went into the back and got me one. I was practically dancing around the store as they printed out the sticker and slapped it on the package and set it on the counter. Now, before I go any further, I should make it known that I do understand that the price of pork has gone up but, when I looked at the sticker...
OMG! :shock: :faint:
Just like that, most of my gift certificate vanished. After that, all I had left was enough to pick up a couple pounds of ground meats. Depression set in immediately upon leaving the store. All my dreaming was for not. I was now left with the decision, do I keep the butts as they were, or do something diabolical with one of them?
Feeling the need for meat therapy, I chose the latter. One was wrapped up and tossed in the freezer for proper use later while the other was left out for some cutting.
I started by removing the Fat Cap but, I went a little deeper than normal to take some meat along with it. This was then bagged up and put away until later.
Any remaining little bits of fat were trimmed off and I was left with a butt light.
As far as the rest of the fat went, I wasn't about to just throw it away, so I chopped it up and threw it in a pan.
While those little bits were cooking down. I took my butt light and sliced off some pork steaks until I hit a bone. What was left I saved for a mini smoked butt later.
After I got all these bagged up, I returned back to the bits of fat that were slowly cooking away on the stove, and after a bit, I had a fresh batch of cracklins!
These little gems were delicious and melted in the mouth.
After I finished up my cracklin snack. I took out some kosher salt, brown sugar, and black pepper and mixed them up.
I have been wanting to make some bacon for awhile so, I figured I would take this opportunity to do some experimenting with it. I took the Fat Cap out and slathered it up with something special.
Then it got rubbed down with the curing mix.
From there it went into a plastic bag to sit in the fridge for about a week.
During this week, the pork steaks came out to play and got cooked up on my indoor cast iron propane powered grill.
These were extremely tender and absolutely delicious! Love me some pork steaks!
After the week or so, the fat cap was ready for smoking.
The Fat Cap was given a quick rinse and then onto the UDS it went, set as low as possible.
"low as possible" was not nearly low enough to smoke the bacon. It wouldn't get any lower than 200 and after 2 hours, the fat had obviously started to cook, I quick probed it and it was at 150 so I yanked it off.
From there I hand sliced it up.
The only thing to do was fry up a couple of pieces to test it out.
The results were not all that disappointing. It obviously does not have enough smoke flavor but, the saltiness and general profile were pretty close to being right on. Some more testing shall be required though. Although one thing I know for sure. I will be attempting Fat Cap Bacon again in the future!
Thanks for looking! :becky:
OMG! :shock: :faint:
Just like that, most of my gift certificate vanished. After that, all I had left was enough to pick up a couple pounds of ground meats. Depression set in immediately upon leaving the store. All my dreaming was for not. I was now left with the decision, do I keep the butts as they were, or do something diabolical with one of them?
Feeling the need for meat therapy, I chose the latter. One was wrapped up and tossed in the freezer for proper use later while the other was left out for some cutting.
I started by removing the Fat Cap but, I went a little deeper than normal to take some meat along with it. This was then bagged up and put away until later.
Any remaining little bits of fat were trimmed off and I was left with a butt light.
As far as the rest of the fat went, I wasn't about to just throw it away, so I chopped it up and threw it in a pan.
While those little bits were cooking down. I took my butt light and sliced off some pork steaks until I hit a bone. What was left I saved for a mini smoked butt later.
After I got all these bagged up, I returned back to the bits of fat that were slowly cooking away on the stove, and after a bit, I had a fresh batch of cracklins!
These little gems were delicious and melted in the mouth.
After I finished up my cracklin snack. I took out some kosher salt, brown sugar, and black pepper and mixed them up.
I have been wanting to make some bacon for awhile so, I figured I would take this opportunity to do some experimenting with it. I took the Fat Cap out and slathered it up with something special.
Then it got rubbed down with the curing mix.
From there it went into a plastic bag to sit in the fridge for about a week.
During this week, the pork steaks came out to play and got cooked up on my indoor cast iron propane powered grill.
These were extremely tender and absolutely delicious! Love me some pork steaks!
After the week or so, the fat cap was ready for smoking.
The Fat Cap was given a quick rinse and then onto the UDS it went, set as low as possible.
"low as possible" was not nearly low enough to smoke the bacon. It wouldn't get any lower than 200 and after 2 hours, the fat had obviously started to cook, I quick probed it and it was at 150 so I yanked it off.
From there I hand sliced it up.
The only thing to do was fry up a couple of pieces to test it out.
The results were not all that disappointing. It obviously does not have enough smoke flavor but, the saltiness and general profile were pretty close to being right on. Some more testing shall be required though. Although one thing I know for sure. I will be attempting Fat Cap Bacon again in the future!
Thanks for looking! :becky:
